It would seem that very few lessons have been learned from the Binyam Mohamed affair as more British citizens are detained abroad. The poor response by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to their detention has become a feature of the way British Muslims held on suspected terror charges abroad are perceived by the UK government.

A British woman has been detained in Syria without charge or trial since 15 March. Her three youngest children remain with their aunt in the country as they wait for their mother to be charged or released.

Like dozens of Britons who travel to the Levant each year, Maryam Kallis and her family moved to Syria from the UK to study Arabic in 2005. Having spent several years residing in Syria, the Kallis family had decided to return to the UK. Maryam Kallis's husband, Masood, returned with their eldest son early to seek employment and the remainder of the family were to join him later. Maryam Kallis had made arrangements to leave Syria by the end of March. However, two weeks before her departure, she was arrested by Syrian security agents.

What is unclear is the exact reason for her detention. From the details given to the family by the British embassy in Syria, it would appear that she has been held on grounds relating to terrorism. However, without formal charges it is difficult for anyone to tell. What is known is that Kallis was accompanied by her eight-year-old son on her way to meet a friend when she was surrounded by 10 plainclothed security agents in a busy Damascas street. They took her to her home where she was aggressively paraded in handcuffs in front of her sister and children while the agents ransacked her home.

The FCO initially claimed it had no knowledge of her detention and could not find out any information about her. After two weeks of secret detention, Masood Kallis went in front of BBC cameras to make an appeal for his wife and to raise awareness about her incarceration. Two days later, she was brought back to her home and shown to her children. The Syrian guards who returned her for the brief visit denied her contact with her children or sister properly. She was taken back to the unknown detention facility.

It was after 25 days of detention that the FCO was finally able to meet Kallis. However, it did not disclose any real information regarding her detention other than that she "appeared well" and claimed information about her location was secret and could not be shared.

Kallis and another British citizen remain in a Syrian prison to this day. The FCO claims – as minister Bill Rammell has done here – that it is doing everything in its power to help her situation. However, the providing of comfort items such as biscuits does not go anywhere near the level of intervention that is required in such cases – especially in countries where the torture of western nationals is well documented (see the cases of Maher Arar, Abdullah Al Maliki, Muayyad Nureddin and Mohamed Hamid.

At the beginning of April, Cageprisoners released its report, Fabricating Terrorism II: British Complicity in Renditions and Torture (pdf), which highlighted the cases of 29 Muslim detainees who had been detained abroad. One common feature among all those cases is the serious extent of the abuse they suffered and the lack of help they received from consular staff in protecting their rights. In light of the investigations being carried out by Scotland Yard into the involvement of British security agencies in the torture and rendition of British citizens and residents, the FCO would be well advised to exert their utmost efforts in helping the two detained in Syria.

A senior member of the FCO explained to the lawyer of the two citizens that they had made it very clear to the Syrian authorities that they needed to have access to Kallis because the UK government was under pressure from the public over other similar matters. It is extremely discomforting to know that the FCO has been more concerned about scoring political points than actually representing the interests of Kallis over her detention without charge. This may seem unjustified to some in light of certain actions that the FCO has already taken to visit Kallis. However, when one considers other cases they have dealt with – such as that of Deborah Parry and Lucille McLaughlan, the British nurses accused of involvement in the murder of colleague in Saudi Arabia – the starkly disproportionate FCO response appears discriminatory in its approach.